Cricket: Bell keen to follow Ponting example

Ian Bell is looking to follow the lead of Australia captain Ricky Ponting as he bids to make the England No 3 role his own.

Ponting, one of the world's best batsmen, has been a dominant figure batting at first wicket down, scoring over 9,000 runs in 110 Tests at an average of nearly 60 with 33 hundreds.

And the 32-year-old Tasmanian, who led Australia to victory in the 2007 World Cup in Barbados in April, after leading the team to the trophy in southern Africa four years earlier, has been a major force in the shorter form of the game as well.

"For me, especially batting at three in one-day cricket, he's the best at the minute," Bell said of Ponting at Edgbaston here Tuesday.

"I think he definitely goes on, when he gets in he converts his scores into hundreds and that's something I want to achieve, to turn all my fifties into hundreds," added Bell, speaking at his Warwickshire home ground where the second one-day international is due to take place on Wednesday.

"He certainly has a way of playing in one-day cricket. He doesn't go out and slog, he plays proper shots and doesn't always go at it from ball one.

"He's cool, he's calm and he plays a role where he's always in control. That's something I'd admire about him and like to bring into my game."

Bell, who has been shunted up and down the order during his England career, believes No 3 is his best position.

In that role he top-scored with 56 at Lord's in England's 79-run win during Sunday's first of three one-day internationals (ODIs) against the West Indies.

However, unlike Ponting, the 25-year-old Bell has yet to turn any of his 11 ODI fifties into hundreds.

"You want to be scoring one-day hundreds but some of the knocks I've played we've ended up winning the game and I've been 80 not out," said Bell, who has now played 45 ODIs.

"I've backed myself to do it (score a hundred), it's just a matter of time.

"I think No 3 suits my game more than other positions but if England want me to bat in a different position, I'd be willing to do it."

He added: "Mooresy (England coach Peter Moores) has told me not to see myself as a young cricketer any more but to see myself as a proper Test match cricketer. That's something I've got to work on mentally.

"At No 3, you've got to have people in there who are going to take responsibility, judge the conditions, and build a platform for the guys that we have around to get big scores."

Bell was controversially left out by Warwickshire for their FP Trophy semi-final defeat against Hampshire, which took place the day after last month's fourth Test win against the West Indies, despite being made available by England.

"It did hurt, I'm a Warwickshire lad," said Bell. "But that wasn't my decision. I've talked about it with the club and we've moved on."